How Do Institutional Arrangements Support Community - Based Conservation

Environmental problems such as loss of biodiversity, global warming, and poverty have accelerating over the past 50 years and are projected to increase. These problems are now widely debated in academic publications and in the popular media. Arguably, their origins lie in the European Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century, but recognition of them has increased and in the 21st century, they are high on the political agenda of most developed and developing nations. There is an emerging consensus that people are the main driving force behind current environmental problems. Although economic growth is viewed as an inevitable component in improving living standards, including public health and wellbeing, associated resource exploitation is accepted as having alarming negative impacts on ecosystems (Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1999). Human progress has long been underpinned by a struggle to secure political dominancy, and economic, social and political wealth. The price paid has in a large part been felt in the natural environment.